POWER March 2022 - 9

GLOBAL MONITOR
" Like many other countries around the
world right now, Brazil is taking steps to
modernize its grid and expand the capacity
of its transmission system, " said Andy
Bennett, CEO of mPrest, a developer
and provider of distributed asset orchestration
and optimization software for energy,
defense, and commercial markets.
Bennett told POWER, " This process will
include costly upgrades to the country's
physical infrastructure as well as reliable
integration of growing sources of distributed,
renewable generation. Intelligent
grid management software has demonstrated
crucial applications that can
support these efforts. We can expect
major utilities throughout Brazil to turn to
these platforms to facilitate the energy
transition and improve their customer experience
through access to real-time insights
and data-driven decision-making. "
The EPE group said several technologies,
both thermal and renewable, are
expected to help meet Brazil's increased
demand for electricity. Government data
from January of this year shows Brazil currently
has 183 GW of power generation
capacity in operation, which includes 103
GW of hydro, 46 GW of thermal, 21 GW
of wind, 5.5 GW of small hydro, 4.6 GW of
solar, 1.9 GW of nuclear, 838 MW of minihydro,
and 0.5 MW of wave energy.
Hydropower has long been important
to Brazil, accounting for as much as
80% of power production a decade ago,
though falling closer to 60% today due to
changing rainfall patterns. EPE said reliance
on hydro will continue, along with
growth in wind and solar power. But
the group said the country will primarily
rely on thermal power plants to supply
the bulk of new generation, and that includes
nuclear power.
Government officials already have
started a process to identify sites for new
reactors, which it wants to have in service
by 2050 if not sooner, according to Brazil's
" National Energy Plan to 2050. " The
country's Ministry of Mines and Energy
in January announced it is working with
Electrobras Cepel (Cepel), a state-funded
electrical energy research group, to find
sites where new reactors could be built.
" An increase in the participation of
nuclear energy in the Brazilian energy
mix is important to reduce the impacts
of water crises on electricity generation, "
said Cepel as part of the January announcement.
The Ministry of Mines and
Energy in a statement said, " Cooperation
[with] Cepel should facilitate a more
efficient choice of the country's new
nuclear
sites,
March 2022 | POWER
considering
projections
of energy demand, socio-environmental
needs and the attraction of new investment
to enable the construction of the
plants. " Bento Costa Lima, the minister
of Mines and Energy, at the COP26
meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, last year,
said nuclear energy " was, is, and will be
essential and fundamental for the energy
transition, " adding that " we will add
10 GW in the next 30 years. "
Brazil's lone nuclear plant, Angra, accounts
for about 3% of the country's
generation from two reactors that entered
service in 1982 and 2000, respectively.
Unit 1 is a 640-MW reactor; Unit
2 has 1,350 MW of generation capacity.
Construction of a third reactor, the 1,245MW
Angra 3 (Figure 2), has been stalled
but a restart of that project is part of the
country's nuclear power plan, with hopes
it could be in service by 2027.
While Brazil's government plans to
privatize the Eletrobras electricity group,
subsidiary Eletronuclear will remain stateowned,
providing the group with more avenues
to find funding to complete Angra
3. Eletronuclear in September of last year
signed a memorandum of understanding
with Russia's Rosatom to develop cooperation
in many areas of nuclear plant
operation
and
maintenance,
including
new build and construction of Angra 3.
Brazil has previously announced plans to
add nuclear power on at least two occasions
since 2009, though nothing came
to fruition despite talks with major global
players such as Westinghouse, China National
Nuclear Corp., Korea Electric Power
Co., and Rosatom. This time, though, the
country wants to leverage public-private
partnerships through the Conselho do
Programa de Parcerias de Investimentos
(CPPI, or the Investment Partnership Programme
Council). Westinghouse could be
on board as well.
" Around the world, we are seeing increased
demand for energy, and Brazil
is no exception, " said Pam Cowan, president
of Westinghouse's Americas Operating
Plant Services unit. Cowan told
POWER, " Nations like Brazil are taking a
hard look at how nuclear can help meet
their growing energy needs. Our products
and services are helping nuclear
operators deliver reliable energy, achieve
energy independence, and build our decarbonized
future. "
Westinghouse, which built Angra 1,
has serviced Brazil's nuclear program for
more than three decades, and has an active
presence in Latin America and South
America. The company has said it could
supply Brazil with several nuclear power
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POWER March 2022

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